This copper sculpture represents Buddha as seated in
‘padmasana’ fully absorbed in meditation. His right hand is extended
down to the earth with its central finger touching it, and on the palm
of the left, placed on his lap he is holding a beautifully modeled and
adorned ‘patra’ – pot. The image’s copper-plating is not casual but
the tradition involves the basic essence of Buddhist Imagery. It
suggests that the golden glow of brass, symbolic of outward light, has
descended within and is now the intrinsic light that glows but beyond
material vision. The copper-covering of the image has completely
changed the perspective. Now the glory of the image has got to be
sought in its, and thereby in the Enlightened One’s, oceanic depth,
not on the mere surface.
Besides the lotus-seat symbolic of cosmos in aggregate representing
all three cosmic regions – the earth, water and sky, that the Great
Master pervades, this image represents his three forms, One in
absolute Buddhahood, he who has overcome temptations, greed and all
that evil stands for, he who has discovered the light within, and he
who redeems the mankind from all miseries, torments and ailments. The
image combines Dhyani-Buddha – Buddha in meditation : the All-knowing
One, Bhaisajya-guru – the Medicine Buddha : the Compassionate, and
Buddha in Bhumi-sparsha-mudra – the earth-touching posture, the
Liberated. With a well composed face, largely shut eyes and sublimity
enshrining his entire being this form of the Master is sometimes
defined as Yoga-Murti Buddha, one beyond oneself – beyond whatever
bound or defined. ‘Yoga’ in the Buddhist context is not the same as in
Hindu where it is a ritual practice aimed at uniting with the Supreme
or with the deity the practiser is devoted to. This is not the
Buddhist way. The Yoga-Murti Buddha is not one who unites or merges
with the Supreme but in him manifests the absolute cosmic existence –
past, present and future, the state of Absolute Buddhahood.
The cross-legged sitting posture with up-turned soles of the feet, as
has this magnificent image, often defined in India’s iconographic
tradition of the divine images as 'padmasana' – lotus posture, is
identified in the Buddhist, as also in the Jain, traditions as the
‘Yoga-mudra' – a meditative posture. In Buddha’s early images such
posture is associated with his three forms : ‘Bhumi-sparsha-mudra’,
fasting Buddha and ‘Dhyani-Buddha’, though contextually hardly of any
significance for in these forms the acts that the Buddha performs or
the stages he passes through alone are significant. ‘Yoga’, as part of
the Buddhist spiritual practices, as also the corresponding ‘yogasana’
posture of the Buddha’s image, evolved in late Vajrayana Buddhism
around the ninth-tenth centuries as a potential means to make the body
flexible, supple and youthful, and sometimes for representing absolute
Buddhahood – the state of total extinction of worldly experiences, all
acts and all material contexts, the state of ‘Nirvana’ while still in
life.
The meaning of the image apart, in aesthetic beauty, modeling,
plasticity and balanced anatomy the image is simply unparalleled. The
lines, whether defining the figure’s apparel, iconographic features,
body-parts, the pedestal’s top or the series of lotuses upholding it,
seem to flow like ripples of a brook, melody of a reaper in a distant
field, or rhythm emitting from a dancer’s feet. The image pursues same
iconographic model and attains same levels of perfection – sharp nose,
large lotus-eyes in meditative trance, cute lips perfectly aligning to
nose, round face with slightly protruding chin, triple-folded neck,
ears with large earlobes …, as reveal in the fifth-sixth century
Sarnath Buddha images. The image seems to be wearing a long
textile-sheet with fine gold borders serving with its extra length as
both, ‘sanghati’ as well as ‘antariya’, besides a part of it lying
stretched like a lotus on the top of the seat.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.<
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